Linking up with Kelly for 7 Quick Takes...
1)
I have some decluttering I want to do in the house, and I figured Lent would be a good a time as any (maybe even better) to get it done. Usually I attack a project in one big swoop, but I drag my feet and complain about it for a long time first. "Oh I have to clean out my whole closet and I hate doing that chore and it takes so long and maybe I'll just wait until we have a snow day." But so far, that snow day hasn't come, and my closet still isn't cleaned and picked through. So for Lent, my aim is to just DO SMALL ACTIONS ALL THE TIME towards my goal and not postpone until I have the time to do it all at once. It's not the job that is my Lenten sacrifice, it's working on my attitude, obedience and not procrastinating that is my Lenten goal. I am just working on small portions of my closet each day, and then I hope to inventory and clean out the freezers and fridge and pantries. Then move on to the next task. It's a weird feeling for me to stop cleaning the closet without it being finished, but it's way better than not to start at all, ya know?
2)
I'm trying to take the same approach to my spiritual life. I can easily read a gospel reflection on my break, go to Mass in the morning at our school's chapel, say the rosary in the car when picking up/dropping off kids, go to the stations on Friday. It's just taking advantage of the pockets of time I have and not beating myself up that I'm not doing something huge everyday. Lots of small steps are helping me not to fail. So far. It's only the third day of Lent, Colleen, geesh.
3)
And the reason that I have these pockets of time seemingly open during Lent is because I gave up Instagram (again). I reach for my phone to catch up on other people's lives, remember I can't look at it, and ask myself what else I could be doing instead. Playing a game with the littles?
Organizing the bathroom cabinet? Reading a good book? It's embarrasing how much time I can waste on Instagram, and we all have our own time wasters, don't we?
4)
I heard a witness from a friend this week, about how she was listening to a talk on Catholic radio from a sister who said how important and powerful praying to St. Joseph was. My friend was worrying about some issues in her family, and decided to pray to St. Joseph to take care of them for her, so she could enjoy her family without always worrying about things. A short while later, a person she never met (from church) told her that she had a message for her. It was something to the effect that "God says everything will be taken care of." Shortly after that, all the things she was worrying about, one by one got answered, and she is definitely attributing it to good old St. Joe. I just thought I'd share her story here (without too many details) to encourage you/myself to pray boldly for what we need, with faith that God will indeed take care of us.
5)
We are in a nice little lull between winter and spring sports right now. The high schoolers have a few weeks before track starts, and the CYO basketball kids start playoff games next week. So of course, with all of this "free time" I signed up the youngest four kids for swimming lessons...because I don't know how to have a relaxing schedule ;) No really, it's because my little guys aren't great swimmers yet and that scares me at the beach. Maggie does competitive swim, and I just want her to stay in shape, and Xander has been in the same level for maybe over a year? So he needs to improve to be able to join Maggie in competitive swim.
6)
In sports related news, Phil has agreed to coach Spring Track this year (he coached Winter Track last year) and will be coaching the high jumpers. He has exactly zero experience with high jumping, but has been trying to learn with videos and articles, and talking to the old coach. Wouldn't it be funny if our team became great at high jumping this year, like a real life Little Giants story. Or it might look like this:
7)
And I'll leave you with a newspaper article and photo about the students at our catholic high school who won awards for their essays. Of course, I'm sharing because JP won second place, and Phil is mentioned in the article (he didn't judge! It was all kosher!)
DARTMOUTH — Five Bishop Stang High School students have received awards 2019-20 Knights of Columbus for their submissions to the Catholic Citizenship Essay Contest, according to a news release from the school.
Isabella Escoto, Mackenzie Fillion, Caitlyn Moore, John-Paul Martin, and Alex Fernandes each were presented awards from the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the school by Philip Martin, the chairman of the Theology Department at Bishop Stang.
Essays were judged on grammar, style, and how clearly they present this year’s theme, “Discuss the meaning of Virtue and how you live and embody the virtue of Charity.” Martin invites students to participate in the contest each year, and is encouraged by the number of students who take the time to do so, the news release said.
According to contest guidelines, the contest “encourages today’s youth to be more connected to their community and their faith.”
The goal of their writing contest is to involve young Catholics in 8th through 12th grade (public, private, parochial or home schools) in “civic discourse and instill in them religious and life-affirming values.”
— The Standard-Times
TGIF peeps - have a wonderful Lenten sacrificing, Sunday cheating, growing in holiness weekend!
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